


Echoes of Earth: isotech lab

by FullSizeRender, SyntheticAngel



Series: Character One-Shots, Etc [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Original work - Freeform, Outer Space, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Slice of Life, original - Freeform, scifi, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26623801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FullSizeRender/pseuds/FullSizeRender, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyntheticAngel/pseuds/SyntheticAngel
Summary: "Echoes of Earth" is meant to be a retrospective series of canon events that occur before "Other Worlds" begins.Ares hates when most people drop by his lab unannounced, but the stars must've aligned to get TWO of those people at the same time.
Series: Character One-Shots, Etc [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810666
Kudos: 1





	Echoes of Earth: isotech lab

Calculated.

Everything lead Isotech engineer Ares did was planned. Beakers filled to specific measurements littered counters around him, scales were calibrated down to the smallest possible unit. Nobody came in or out of his lab without his knowledge. He trusted his peers, but there were some spaces he hesitated to share, especially when it came to the biggest project he’d ever been tasked with.

He hunched over a sample dish with goggles strapped tightly over his face. An oily amalgam pulsed in the dish as he leaned closer with a long, thin tool in his hand. Suit integration wouldn’t be easy. He foresaw long, grueling nights ahead, but he didn’t blink in the face of a scientific challenge. Just a little closer…

“Oh Aaaaaaaron~”

God _dammit_.

Strands of strawberry blonde hair lingered dangerously close to the dish, her curious expression twisting as it struggled to understand exactly what they were looking at. She could feel her eyes glaze over, confusion overtaking the initial excitement that led her visit one of the many worker bees in her hive. Being the president’s daughter was hard work, after all! Reading charts and reports she barely had the desire to flip through, listening to their countless complaints about workplace safety...it was exhausting pretending to care.

Ares was one of the few people in the company that didn’t obnoxiously kiss her ass, and it made the last stop of the day the best one.

“What’s that goop? Is that going in the suit?” She asked, leaning closer to check the petri dish before Ares yanked it away. He couldn’t risk his research being tainted by dye and expensive hair products. “Can you seriously make a suit of that? It looks like wiggly black mold. Gross. We fired Peter over that the other day - left his shitty home cooking in the fridge too long. Ick.”

“ _Please_ .” He hissed, his sunken eyes filled with panic the second she leaned just a little too close. The element he studied reacted to _anything living_ within good reach, and he didn’t understand what that entailed yet. Isotech would have his head on a silver platter if something happened to her, even if it was her fault. He set the dish down but his shoulders were still tense.

“It’s going to be _part_ of the suit, ideally.” He said, pausing as if she was extracting the unwilling information out of him. “Part computer and part...this. But there’s a lot we don’t know about it yet, and I need a _completely controlled workspace_ to be able to study it. Which means as little interruption as possible.” He rubbed his forehead. “We have deadlines, Cass.”

“Mmmm, no interruptions. Got it. Definitely. Deadlines and...spreadsheets and...y’know, science stuff.” Cass fell silent with a dismissive nod. She lingered for a moment, staring at the science experiment in the dish before strolling away to tap aimlessly on an unused computer. She perused government secrets, top secret research, Ares’ browser history - nothing she cared to understand, but she needed to remember at least a couple terms she could take back to her dad.

“So like, I’m getting one right? A suit? I better. And I need to be able to customize it. Color, design - the works.” Her demands were swift and incessant, an approach to requests that hadn’t failed her yet. Every piece of tech created for personal use passed through her hands first, which often led to a glut of features and doodads that never served a purpose other than aesthetic pleasure. Computer case tower with hover jets for easy movement _and_ a button to cycle through multiple preset designs? All her. Did she play computer games? Absolutely not, but the matte black looked atrocious.

“Is it gonna be done soon? I tried asking the nerds over in R&D but they just kept stuttering about ‘unstable elements’ and stuff, so they were useless. Also, do you have any gum?”

He turned back to the goopy alloy when she started meandering through the lab. This was the only specimen not locked away securely, so whatever else she stuck her nose in would be infinitely easier to clean up. She’d look through the harmless stuff, get bored, and hopefully leave without touching too much. His hand holding a tool shook, though, and he gave up on study shortly after trying. 

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” he muttered in reference to her getting a suit of her own. The demands went in one ear and out the other. He turned back around and tried to keep his lack of patience from being too apparent, but he still looked as though he’d aged 30 years from the short interaction.

“They were right, the element is too unstable to have an accurate estimate. I’m in the middle of submitting requests for overtime for the whole team. I suggest putting in a good word for us if you want this to move along faster. I’ll have to take some of this home for study, if I’m not just sleeping here.” He emphasized the necessity for overtime, hoping she’d pick up the implication that was indeed a busy man that needed to ‘get back to it.’ It was never that easy, he knew. He could already hear the ‘we have to follow protocol’ from management before he finished his thought. Anything to make her think she was part of it, somehow…

“Does that answer your question?”

“Mmmm…” Cass’ tongue clicked behind her teeth; too many words. The explanation was correct (and probably reasonable) but couldn’t fit in a snappy text. And if it wasn’t quick, what’s the point? “Nah. Not really. Plus you didn’t tell me if you had gum. No wonder my dad calls you guys ‘the lowest performing department’. Seriously. Buuuuut…”

At the snap of her fingers a hardlight projection of her phone screen sprouts from her wrist, complete with an obnoxious pop tune announcing its arrival. Her fingers swiped and tapped with the precision of a professional, and within seconds a series of messages to “Daddy<3” were sent over. Another snap and the projection disappeared.

“Cool right? Emerging Technologies department let me take this for a test run to generate some buzz. Bumped Isotech’s stock last week after what’s-his-face got into a DUI. Idiot.” Cass chuckled and shook her head; getting caught was bad enough, but trying to use the Isotech name to get out of it was truly amateur hour.

“Anyway I told dad that this stuff is hard or whatever, so when you have another department meeting the board will lighten up a little. Make sure you get my color changing stuff in there, redhead~ Oh, and the gum. I prefer cinnamon.”

Few people made his blood boil like Cass; Ares steeled himself before he said something that might get him into trouble. The emotional labor of interacting with people outside of his team was oftentimes much more taxing than his actual research. With the exception of one accountant…

Wait, did she say ‘lowest performing department’?

“We’re on the verge of breakthrough, if _anyone_ thinks poorly of our performance then they won’t after we showcase these suits. I won’t rest until they’re done.” He swallowed his pride for the time being; god damn if he didn’t hate the way she talked to him—and everyone for that matter. “I appreciate the gesture. You’ll be one of the first to know when they’re ready for testing. Aside from the military wing.”

“You talkin’ shit again, Aaron?” The powerful _click clack_ of heels overtook the lab as the automatic doors slid open. Cass and Ares groaned in tandem. No one was ever happy to see Kate, as it meant that the US government had a particular interest in whatever project they were working on. Slip ups were out of the question, and time out of the office was accompanied by plain-clothes agents. Privacy was nonexistent until the product was released, but at least the funding was limitless.

“Because you know we have the place bugged. Hate to hear you say something that might hurt my feelings.”

“ _Kate._ ” Cass seethed through grit teeth. The only person that could exert more pressure on her dad than she could.

“ _Princess._ ” Kate returned the venom in kind, her smug smile exuding confidence and superiority. She was well aware of the strength her position commanded, and used it like a sledgehammer to get things done. “Little birdie told me you were on the verge of something big. Is it bigger than the androids you guys cranked out before? Because those things have been a godsend since we deployed ‘em over in Neo-Beldania.”

“U-uh,” Ares stammered, reaching back to hide the specimen dish as if it were contraband. His fingers dipped into it and he drew back sharply, causing a loud clatter. He winced, wiped his hand on his lab coat, and forced a smile. “Bigger than the androids. Actually, this should take us out to space even more efficiently than our current technology, so that we can join them on newly terraformed planets. Not everybody will get one, but I assure you our military will be covered.”

He struggled to keep eye contact. Kate was dressed as she always was, in an ironed black uniform embellished with several decorations and awards louder than her heels. Everything about her exuded intimidation. Ares’s expression faltered into weariness. It must’ve been sheer misfortune to blame for _two_ unwanted visits back to back.

“I- I was just explaining to Miss Price that we’re still researching what the alloy does, but as soon as I’m able to test it safely then I can provide an accurate timeline for commercial use.”

“Commercial use? You got a goddamn super metal from the bowels of hell and you wanna hand it out to selfie junkies and the braindead masses? Full offense, Cass.”

Cass rolled her eyes, lips scrunched into a tight-lipped frown. She had some choice words for the venerated warrior that would probably go up on her private blog later (only 15,000 people knew about that account).

“Aaron, you’re a smart guy. Wouldn’t be here if you weren’t. Hell, I’ve vouched for ya a couple times. So I - and by extension the government - will pretend that you weren’t considering selling an extremely rare resource on some late night infomercial.”

Kate strode forward and Ares instinctively moved to the side, leaving the disturbed petri dish unguarded by its caretaker. She reached into her coat pocket to retrieve a glove, slipped it on and gingerly picked up the science experiment to examine it with a keen eye.

“Shit looks like rotten pudding. Is this all we got from that mining expedition a couple weeks ago? We still have that gear rented if you need more.”

“Yes!” He sputtered, raising his hands to stop her. The glare he received made him second guess. Instead he clasped them together. “I mean, this isn’t all we have, but what we have is still unimpressive. What I’ve seen of it so far is incredible, but again, still looking into its chemical composition.” 

He bit his tongue. Was this research _not_ eventually supposed to aid the greater population at all? That was for another time, maybe. Not while Isotech president’s daughter and an overzealous US military official stared him down. He hadn’t gone through 10 years of higher education and received several degrees and a PhD to get verbally bullied in his own lab.

“It looks like that in its raw state. I hope to be able to harness its transformative properties to push our space faring survival rate to nearly one hundred percent. Full suit integration, machine and man. Retain the better parts of—”

“You’re gonna kill me with this technobabble, man. Literally kill me.” Kate groaned, the smile disappearing from her face as she tossed the specimen back onto the table. “Look, we both know there ain’t enough time for you to explain whatever this is. Earth’s on its last legs, and our soldiers need to make sure the path is clear when we head out.”

“Didn’t you guys just send out a bunch of androids to space? Seems like a waste for _you_ to get this suit thingy.” Cass interjected with a sneer. Kate shot a furious glare back at the young woman.

“First off, that was NASA’s fault. They got all giddy about exploring deep space, then they shot the damn things too far. Can’t get them back. Fuckin’ astrologers wastin’ money.” She spat, yanking her glove off and stuffing it into her pocket. She exhaled sharply; just the mention of NASA’s disastrous management of the Terra Genesis project made her eye twitch. All that money literally shot out into space, with nothing to show for it.

Even after a year, they still called her the ‘Space Robot Army Commander’. Humiliating.

“Secondly, don’t forget that we have your dad by the balls. We’re aware of the insider trading, the skimming off the top, all that shit. The money you get from daddy is filthy. It just so happens that you have big brains like Aaron here, so we keep it under wraps.” Kate’s heels _clack_ with authority as she approached Cass, face to face with the flippant tech heiress. Her eyes narrowed; it felt like she was punishing a disobedient soldier in basic training all over again. “So we’ll be taking that suit when it’s ready - and we won’t be sharing. We good?”

Cass grumbled incoherently. She couldn’t hold eye contact, staring down at the floor as a means of silent rebellion. Kate’s head whipped to look at Ares as well, eyebrows raised to prompt him to speak.

“We’re clear, right buddy?”

Ares looked between them as tension peaked and ended with a furious question aimed between his eyes. He wanted to tell her off, _both_ of them off so desperately he nearly shook in his boots, but something held him back. He was just an engineer. And now wasn’t his time. 

His dull green eyes met her gaze.

“Clear as crystal, ma’am.”

“Ma’am! Ha! Loving that. Glad to hear it. Good check-in.” Satisfied, Kate casually strolled away and spoke over her shoulder. She had what she needed for today. “Keep up the good work, huh? Doin’ the country proud, great patriot, all that shit. See ya next month!”

The automatic doors slid shut and Kate disappeared from sight, giving Cass the freedom to let out the furious sigh she had been holding in for so long. She gave the scientist a slight nudge with her elbow to grab his attention.

“What a bitch, huh?”

“Get out.”


End file.
